Aksum An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity Stuart Munro-Hay



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incorporated in the rubble make- up for a plaster floor in a room later destroyed by an 
intense fire; none were recovered complete. The shapes ranged from a squat flat-based 
bowl to a stem cup. They were probably part of the luxurious equipment of some 
prosperous Aksumite. Nothing like them is known from elsewhere in Ethiopia (though a 
few fragments of marble plates were found at Matara; Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. 
LXVII, 3), and they may have been imported. A number of basins of marble and 
alabaster were found at Adulis, some of impressive dimensions; a few were decorated 
with relief carving (Paribeni 1907: 458, 491).  
4. Metalwork 
 
The metal equipment used by the Aksumites seems to fall into two categories. In the first, 
items of luxury, such as jewellery, costly boxe s, small decorative objects, bowls, and 
figures in the round appear in gold, silver and bronze, or combinations of these metals. 
Appliqué plaques in bronze, decorated with enamelling, glass inlay, or gilding, for fixing 
onto wooden boxes or furniture, are especially notable. Among figures in bronze, two (of 
three) Graces, an ibex, lion figures, and two dogs (or leopards?) have been found, all of 
small size (Chittick 1974: fig. 23; Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. LXVIII; de Contenson 
1959i: pl. XIX; 1963i: pl. XIVa-b). A lion- head figured on a bronze vase- handle at 
Adulis, and also on two examples of bronze door furniture found among the ruins of one 
of the churches there; on one of the latter the lion holds a ring in its mouth (Paribeni 
1907: 462, 530, and fig. 53). The Periplus (Huntingford 1980: 21-22) mentions that brass 
and bronze were imported, the first for use as money, the second for drinking-cups
cooking-pots and armlets and anklets for women. Four bronze bowls or cups found at 
Addi Galamo seem to be of Meroitic origin (Caquot and Drewes 1955: 41, & pl. V). A 
low three- legged bronze vessel with a flat handle in the shape of an ivy- leaf, supported 
below by a ring handle, came from Adulis; though rather shallow, it may have been used 
for drinking wine (Paribeni 1907: 500-501, fig. 29).  
Very little gold and silver has come to light at Aksum, in contrast to the treasure of 
Matara (Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. LXIX and figs. 12-13), or the gold-worker's 
hoard from Adulis (Paribeni 1907: 483ff), but enough to show that some Aksumites 
could afford gilded bronze ornaments, silver bowls or silver-overlaid objects, and gold 
jewellery. One tiny gold nail was found in the Tomb of the Brick Arches, perhaps the 
remains of an attachment to a casket. Some silver and gold objects `made in the design of 
the country' are mentioned as imports by the Periplus (Huntingford 1980: 21). In the 
Tomb of the Brick Arches a bullet-shaped silver amulet case was found lodged among 
the stones of a blocked doorway (Chittick 1974: fig. 24a). A number of gold beads, 
earrings and pendants of different types, from Aksum, Kaskase, and a few other sites, 
have been published by Giuseppe Tringali (1987).  
Much of this material, not surprisingly considering Aksumite trade contacts, has a 
generally Eastern Mediterranean appearance. From earlier, pre-Aksumite sites such as 
Yeha, Sabea, and Hawelti came bronze `identity- markers', open-work plaques sometimes 


in the shape of animals, and sometimes including letters, possibly forming the owner's 
names, in the Epigraphic South Arabian script (de Contenson 1963ii: pls. XLIIb, LIIIa). 
Such sites also produced bronze tools (axes, sickles, knives) of a type different to the 
later Aksumite ones, and including some curved tools (chisels?) resembling the bronze 
object bearing an inscription of king GDR from Addi Galamo (de Contenson 1963ii: pls. 
L, LI). A very interesting, but unfortunately very tiny, fragment of a bronze plaque from 
Adulis bore traces of two Sabaean letters.  
Matara produced a bronze `polycandilon' with four chains holding a circlet with six holes 
for candles, and a bronze pot which contained the Matara treasure of gold crosses, coins 
and chains (Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. LXVIII, 7; LXIX, 2). From Adulis, 
appropriately, came parts of Roman bronze balances (Paribeni 1907: 539, fig. 55; Anfray 
1974: pl. II, 2) and numerous different weights, some marked with Greek letters (Paribeni 
1907: 562-3). Perhaps the most magnificent bronze object so far found in Ethiopia is a 
lamp from Matara (Anfray 1967: 46-8; 1968: pl. 5). The lamp seems to be formed from a 
bronze imitation of the lower jaw of some animal (a boar?) — though it has also been 
described as a conch — set on a circlet of arcaded pillars like those of the Aksumite royal 
crown. From the back rises a leaping dog, which is trying to seize a fleeing ibex.  
In the second category of metal objects come the tools, weapons, and other objects in iron 
(Munro-Hay 1989). Sickles, knives, chisels, saws, axes, tweezers, hinges, spear and 
arrow heads, hooks or staples, and other unidentifiable objects have been found. Much of 
this represents the basic equipment of the artisan or soldier; the peasant might have had a 
spear or a knife or two, or an iron reaping hook (one was found in a tomb), and there are 
obvious examples of military equipment. Some iron rings found at Matara (Anfray 1963: 
pl. LXXXI) apparently binding a prisoner in his cell (his skeleton was also found), recall 
Ezana's boast that he had chained the king of the Agwezat with his throne-bearer (
Ch. 11: 
5, DAE 9
). The Periplus (Huntingford 1980: 21-2) mentions a number of iron tools and 
weapons among the imported goods from the Roman world, while from India (Ariake) 
came iron and steel as a raw material.  
Paribeni (1907: 461, 486, 492) noted small tesserae of lead, possibly for use as tokens in 
commercial transactions, and other formless fragments of the same material, from Adulis, 
and he also found traces of lead pins used for fixing metalwork to carved schist plaques 
(Paribeni 1907: 506-7, fig. 32).  
5. Other Materials 
 
A very large number of stone tools are noted by various excavators at Aksum and other 
sites. They generally seem to be smallish scrapers, made of such  materials as agate
chalcedony, and obsidian (Munro-Hay 1989; Anfray 1963: pl. CXIb). Probably they were 
used to treat some other material, such as skins, wood, or ivory. Paribeni (1907: 450) 
noted that the obsidian and other utensils found at Adulis did not mean that the levels 
from which they came were of great antiquity; he suggested that perhaps such 


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